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WALT  WHITMAN 
THE  PROPHET-POET 


WALT    WHITMAN 

THE  PROPHET-POET 


BY 

ROLAND  D.  SAWYER 


RICHARD  G.  BADGER 


.BOSTON 

I-  •!    ! 


Copyright,  1913,  by  Richard  G.  Badger 


All  Rights  Reserved 


I  A- A 


THE  GORHAM  PRESS,  BOSTON,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

CLARENCE  DARROW 

A  FELLOW-TRAVELLER 

ALONG  WALT'S  OPEN-ROAD 


895703 


PREFACE 

In  that  world  in  which  I  live  and  move  and 
have  my  being,  the  chief  source  of  formation, 
growth,  influence  and  impression,  has  been  my 
reading.  There  are  many  books  and  writings 
to  which  I  am  eternally  indebted;  works  on  his 
tory,  literature,  economics,  theology,  philos 
ophy,  which,  at  different  periods  of  my  life, 
I  have  taken  up  and  studied,  and  they  became 
milestones  along  my  mental  journey.  But  there 
are  also  books  and  writings  of  quite  another 
character;  works  that  we  read  not  as  sources 
of  information  or  from  which  to  frame  our 
philosophy  of  life,  but  works  that  are  inspira 
tional  and  are  to  be  read  again  and  again.  Such 
works  are  books  of  biography  and  autobi 
ography,  religious  writings,  and  poetry.  In  this 
realm  "  The  Gospel  of  Jesus,"  and  "  Leaves  of 
Grass,"  are  books  that  have  out-distanced  all 
others  in  their  influence  upon  me,  and  are  books 
which  I  want  ever  within  reach. 

5 


6  PREFACE 

In  the  early  weeks  of  the  year  of  1907  my 
eyes  were  very  bad;  evenings  I  could  read  but 
little;  sometimes  it  was  a  few  pages,  sometimes 
only  a  few  lines,  then  I  must  close  the  book  and 
brood,  ponder,  think  over  what  I  had  read. 
For  such  form  of  reading  the  poets  surpassed 

all  others,  and  I  soon  found  that  Whitman  sur 
passed  the  other  poets ;  that  from  him  I  received 
the  strongest  stirrings  of  my  emotions  and 
thoughts. 

Thereupon  I  turned  to  study  this  man  Whit 
man;  I  had  access  to  a  fine  private  collection  of 
Whitman  matter,  as  well  as  the  public  libra 
ries,  and  for  several  we  \s  I  saturated  myself 
with  Whitman ;  what  he  had  written,  what  had 
been  written  about  him.  That  was  six  years 
ago,  but  Whitman  does  not  lose  his  grip  on  me 
—  he  lasts,  he  wears  —  he  touches  life  and  feel 
ing  at  so  many  places  that  I  believe  he  will  last 
and  wear. 

Much  has  been  written  about  Whitman,  and 
it  has  been  well  done ;  but  it  has  ofttimes  been  in 
a  too  technical  vein  (as  Symonds),  or  in  such  a 
form  as  would  appeal  only  to  enthusiasts  (as 


PREFACE  7 

Traubel),  or  in  too  expensive  form  (as  Binns). 
Accordingly  I  have  felt  the  need  of  a  short,  up- 
to-date,  popular  presentation  of  the  poet,  and 
his  aims  and  philosophy:  to  fill  that  need  I  have 
written  the  following  pages  under  the  title  of 
Walt  Whitman,  The  Prophet  Poet. 

ROLAND  D.  SAWYER. 
August,  1913 

Ample  Manse, 
Off-the-beaten-path-a-bit. 

Ware.  Mass. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     THE   MAN n 

II     His  MESSAGE  —  DEMOCRACY  ....  20 

III  His  RELIGION 31 

IV  THE  NATURE  LOVER 40 

V     His  NOTE  OF  JOY 46 

VI     THE  POET  PIONEER 54 

VII     His  PLACE  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS     .      .  67 


WALT  WHITMAN 
THE   PROPHET-POET 

CHAPTER  ONE 

THE   MAN 

"  The  good,  gray  poet  gone : 

brave  hopeful  Walt, 
He  may  not  have  been  a  singer 

without  fault, 
Yet  there  rang 

True  music  through  his  rhapsodies, 
As  he  sang, 

Of  brotherhood,  freedom,  love  and  hope. 
He  shall  find  hearers,  who  in  a  slack  time, 
Of  puny  bards  and  pessimistic  rhyme, 
Dared  to  bid  men  adventure  and  rejoice: 
His  "  yawp  barbaric,"  was  a  human  voice; 
The  singer  was  a  man." 

London  Punch. 

NO  more  baffling  figure  ever  entered  the 
realm  of  literature  than  Walt  Whitman. 
When  he  first  issued  his  modest  edition  of  one 


12  WALT  WHITMAN 

thousand  copies  of  "  Leaves  of  Grass  "  in  1855, 
he  was  greeted  on  the  one  hand  by  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  then  in  the  height  of  his  Con 
cord  career,  with  a  letter  glowing  in  praise :  in 
which  Emerson  said  among  other  things, 
u  I  greet  you  at  the  beginning  of  a  great 


career." 


On  the  other  hand,  the  conventional  literary 
reviews  greeted  him  with  prompt  and  savage 
abuse.  Said  the  Boston  Intelligencer,  "  'Leaves 
of  Grass,'  is  the  work  of  some  escaped  lunatic." 
The  Criterion  said,  "  The  author  of  this  book 
must  be  possessed  by  the  soul  of  a  donkey  who 
died  of  disappointed  love."  The  London 
Critic  said,  "The  author  of  this  book  ought  to 
be  publicly  whipped."  There  were  a  few  re 
viewers  who  treated  Walt  with  forbearance, 
Edward  Everett  Hale  for  instance;  and  there 
was  a  still  larger  number  of  reviewers,  who 
joined  with  readers  of  serious  literature,  and 
treated  Walt  with  contemptuous  silence.  But 
Walt  Whitman  was  not  a  figure  to  be  treated 
with  indifference  and  thus  disposed  of,  as  he 
says  — 


THE  MAN  13 

"  I  have  arrived, 

Bearded,  sun-burnt,  gray  necked,  forbidding, 
To  be  wrestled  with  as  I  pass 
For  the  solid  prizes  of  the  universe." 

And  surely  he  was  to  be  reckoned  with;  smug 
conventionalism  might  perhaps  have  silenced 
the  individual  Walt  Whitman,  but  Whitman  was 
more  than  an  individual,  he  was  the  voice  of  a 
coming  new  humanity,  the  expression  of  coming 
changes  in  human  life  that  were  not  to  be 
checked. 

If  a  touch  with  his  personality  is  needed  to 
understand  the  literary  work  of  any  man,  it  is 
surely  so  with  Whitman.  Dowden  says,  "  Vital 
personal  contact  with  Whitman  is  essential  to 
a  true  knowledge  of  him."  Triggs  put  it  even 
stronger  and  declares  that  "  personal  absorbtion 
is  the  price  of  understanding  him."  It  is  easily 
seen  to  be  true  that  we  must  first  look  at  Walt 
himself  in  order  to  understand  and  appreciate 
his  work,  when  we  pause  to  think  of  the  purpose 
of  "  Leaves  of  Grass,"  which  was  to  show  us  a 
new  kind  of  a  man,  the  modern  man.  Bur 
roughs  said  in  an  essay  in  the  Critic  (March  19, 


i4  WALT  WHITMAN 

1898),  "  In  Emerson  we  see  life  through  the 
Transcendental  spirit,  in  Carlyle  through  the 
heroic  spirit,  in  Hugo  through  the  Romantic,  in 
Arnold  through  the  classic,  but  in  Whitman 
through  the  democratic." 

This  is  indeed  a  splendid  and  accurate  classi 
fication;  and  it  is  essential  to  understand  the 
man,  to  see  him,  as  Thoreau  saw  him,  the  great 
est  democrat  of  his  day  —  then  we  can  under 
stand  his  place  and  message.  Careful  study  of 
primary  sources,  ("  Leaves  of  Grass  "),  and  of 
secondary  sources,  (his  biographers),  will  soon 
bring  us  in  sight  of  the  man  described  so  well  by 
O'Conner  —  "Large,  calm,  superbly  formed: 
clad  in  the  careless  and  rough  and  picturesque 
costume  of  the  common  people  —  resembling 
the  stevedore,  mechanic,  seaman  or  laborer, 
passing  leisurely  along  the  pavement,  such  is 
Walt  Whitman." 

This  was  the  man,  who  by  some  sort  of  in 
tuition  or  cosmic  consciousness,  seems  to  have 
been  first  to  feel  the  modern  spirit,  and  to  have 
struck  up  its  songs  for  the  world.  A  writer  and 


THE  MAN  15 

poet,   who  as  Burroughs  says,   "  provokes   in 
quiry  and  will  repay  it." 

Whitman  was  born  of  good  English  stock 
which  he  could  trace  as  far  back  as  1560.  They 
were  a  race  of  solid,  tall,  strong  framed,  long 
lived,  moderately  moving,  friendly  people. 
Walt  took  these  characteristics  from  them,  and 
was  a  full  six  foot  tall  and  in  his  best  days 
weighed  212  pounds.  He  was  born  in  1819  at 
West  Hill,  Long  Island,  the  second  in  a  family 
of  six  sons  and  two  daughters;  his  boyhood  was 
divided  between  Long  Island  and  Brooklyn;  he 
attended  the  common  school  till  he  was  13  and 
was  then  sent  to  learn  the  printer's  trade. 
From  17  to  20  he  spent  his  time  teaching  school, 
writing  some  for  the  papers,  and  occasionally 
working  at  his  printing  trade.  Around  the 
age  of  20  he  published  and  edited  a  small  sheet 
on  Long  Island  for  a  year  and  a  half;  for  sev 
eral  years  after,  or  till  1846,  Walt  worked  at 
his  trade  in  New  York,  occasionally  writing 
something  for  the  newspapers,  attending  the 
various  meetings  and  places  that  would  attract 


1 6  WALT  WHITMAN 

a  serious  minded  mechanic.  In  1846  Whitman 
was  appointed  editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Daily 
Eagle,  and  held  the  position  two  years,  when 
he  left  it  to  take  charge  of  a  paper  in  New 
Orleans.  In  this  Southern  city  romance  seems 
for  the  first  time  to  have  visited  his  life.  Love 
came  between  himself  and  a  Southern  woman, 
apparently  of  higher  social  rank  which  caused 
her  family  to  look  upon  any  thought  of  marriage 
with  disfavor. 

Love  grew  to  intimate  relations  however,  and 
the  woman  became  the  mother  of  a  child. 
Whitman  very  suddenly  gave  up  his  position  and 
returned-  North,  and  was  ever  after  strangely 
reticent  about  the  whole  affair;  he  tore  mention 
of  it  from  his  books,  and  seldom  referred  to  it 
unless  to  speak  of  it  as  the  tragedy  of  his  life. 
There  seems  to  have  been  an  agreeable  under 
standing  between  him  and  the  woman,  for  he 
seems  to  have  visited  her  again,  and  it  is  not 
sure  but  that  she  later  bore  him  other  children; 
and  one  of  the  grandchildren  is  said  to  have 
visited  him  in  the  North. 

Shortly   after  Whitman   returned  home   his 


THE  MAN  17 

father  died,  and  a  mixture  of  leisure,  newspaper 
work,  carpenter  work,  and  a  good  deal  of  quiet 
observation,  reading  and  thinking  occupied  Walt 
for  the  next  five  years,  or  till  1855.  Then  came 
the  putting  out  of  his  "  Leaves  of  Grass,"  in  an 
edition  of  1,000  copies,  most  of  the  typographic 
work,  as  well  as  the  writing,  being  done  by  him 
self.  Whitman's  life  passed  along  till  1862, 
with  some  writing  and  work  at  his  calling. 

When  the  war  broke  out,  Whitman,  true  to 
the  Quaker  traditions  in  which  he  was  brought 
up,  subscribed  too  strongly  to  Garrison's  ideas 
to  enlist.  But  a  brother  George  enlisted,  and 
when  he  was  wounded  in  the  Burnside  campaign 
in  Dec.  1862,  Walt  at  once  started  for  the 
hospital  camps.  When  Walt  got  there  he  found 
George  was  well  and  out,  but  the  hospitals  were 
full  of  sick  and  wounded  soldier  boys  who 
needed  him  quite  as  much  as  George  ever  did, 
and  in  the  hospital  camps  he  stayed,  ministering 
to  the  wounded,  until  the  war  closed.  The 
heroism  and  the  love  of  Walt  in  those  next  two 
and  a  half  years  has  no  parallel  in  the  war 
history;  it  is  said  he  ministered  to  100,000 


1 8  WALT  WHITMAN 

men.  Such  devotion  and  sacrifice  should  have 
silenced  the  carping  cries  of  the  outraged 
prudes  who  were  ever  criticising  him. 

Walt  had  no  means  of  getting  a  living, 
and  there  was  no  pay  in  his  hospital  work, 
so  his  friends  secured  for  him  a  govern 
ment  position  as  a  clerk:  here  he  worked 
mornings,  and  visited  the  hospitals  afternoons. 
Walt  kept  up  this  life  to  the  close  of  the  war. 
He  also  kept  up  his  writing,  and  his  war  pieces 
and  later  work  did  not  prove  quite  so  much  a 
shock  to  the  sensitive  nerves  of  the  conventional 
people  as  had  his  "  Song  of  Walt  Whitman," 
and  a  growing  circle  of  friends,  and  a  growing 
fame  became  his.  In  1873,  Walt  who  had  been 
just  ten  years  in  Washington,  suffered  his  break 
down  in  health,  a  shock,  from  which  he  never 
fully  recovered.  He  was  taken  to  his  brother's 
home  in  Camden,  N.  J.,  and  had  not  been  long 
there  before  the  mother  for  whom  he  felt  such  a 
great  love  died,  and  for  the  next  three  years,  we 
find  Walt,  sad,  sick  and  lonely,  living  with  his 
brother.  By  1876  he  had  in  a  measure  re 
covered  his  health,  and  the  next  few  years  were 


THE  MAN  19 

of  considerable  activity.  He  continued  to  live 
with  his  brother  till  1884,  when  he  bought  his 
little  home  in  Camden,  where  he  passed  the  sun 
set  years  of  his  life,  receiving  the  homage  of  an 
increasing  circle  of  admirers,  till  his  life  went  out 
in  1892. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

HIS    MESSAGE DEMOCRACY 

"  I  speak  the  pass-word  primeval.     I  give  the  sign 
of  Democracy." 

IN  an  analysis  of  Whitman's  message  to  the 
world,  there  is  a  very  general  agreement 
upbn  its  essential  elements.  Symonds  and  Bur 
roughs  are  the  standard  interpreters  of  the  poet, 
,aad  a  glance  at  the  following  table  will  show 
how  thoroughly  they  agree  in  their  analysis  of 
Walt's  message;  they  consider  the  poet  under 
these  divisions  — 

SYMONDS  BURROUGHS 

Religion  Religion 

Self-Hood  Self-Reliance 

Sex  Element  Sex  and  Morals 

Comradeship 

Democracy  Democracy 

The  artist  and  poet  The  artist  and  his  art 

Pioneer  Pioneer 

Poet  of  Science 

Personality  Personality 


HIS  MESSAGE— DEMOCRACY     21 

Ingersoll  in  his  short  but  excellent  study  of 
Whitman,  follows  exactly  the  same  classification 
and  division,  and  makes  only  one  addition, 
namely,  to  consider  "  Whitman  the  Philoso 
pher."  Clarke  is  shorter,  and  speaks  of  the 
poet's  message  under  the  heads  of  "  Religion, 
Democracy,  Art  and  Personality."  Whitman's 
biographers  make  the  same  analysis :  Binn,  the 
best  of  them,  has  a  chapter  on  "  The  Mystic," 
which  is  different  from  any  treatment  by  the 
above  mentioned  writers.  Havelock  Ellis  calls 
Whitman  "  The  Poet  of  the  New  Spirit,"  and 
considers  his  work  under  the  heads,  "  Artist, 
Pioneer,  Democrat,  Personality " ;  Dowden 
treats  him  as  "  The  Poet  of  Democracy,"  with 
out  definite  analysis,  and  so  does  Triggs.  It  is 
evident  that  whatever  faults  Walt  may  have  had, 
he  did  not  fail  to  make  his  message  clear;  there 
is  no  division  in  his  followers  about  understand 
ing  him.  Burroughs'  reference  to  Whitman's 
relation  to  modern  science  is  good,  but  it  is 
Burroughs  rather  than  Whitman  who  sees  it,  and 
it  was  not  a  conscious,  integral  part  of  Whit 
man's  teaching.  And  again  Ingersoll's  refer- 


22  WALT  WHITMAN 

ence  to  Whitman  as  "  A  Philosopher,"  is  hardly 
well  taken.  It  is  true  that  Walt  had  the  soul  to 
see  things,  but  it  was  to  see  them  as  the  poet  or 
seer,  rather  than  the  philosopher:  to  see  them 
with  the  feeling  rather  than  the  reason. 

He  took  in  everything,  and  turned  it  over  and 
over  in  his  mind,  but  it  was  to  brood  over  it 
rather  than  reason  about  it.  Poets  come  to 
their  knowledge  by  intuition  rather  than  through 
the  processes  of  reasoning,  and  Walt  instead 
of  being  an  exception  to  the  rule,  was  one  of 
its  clearest  examples.  With  these  omitted,  the 
concensus  of  the  opinion  of  Whitman's  students 
is,  that  to  understand  his  message,  one  needs  to 
discuss  and  understand, 

His  Personality 

His  Literary  art  and  aims 

His  treatment  of  Sex 

His  Religion 

His  position  as  a  Pioneer  and  Prophet 

His  Democracy,  Comradeship,  Self-hood,  etc. 

I  would  agree  that  these  are  the  essential 
things  to  understand  to  know  Walt's  message 


HIS  MESSAGE— DEMOCRACY     23 

for  us;  but  I  would  add  two  more  chapters, 
which  I  think  are  necessary  that  we  should  see, 
and  these  are,  "  His  Note  of  Joy  "  and  "  His 
Love  of  Nature."  I  also  would  dissent  from 
that  classification  that  puts  Democracy  as  one 
element  of  Walt's  message,  alongside  the  others. 
I  do  not  so  understand  it,  Whitman  was  the 
poet  of  Democracy,  and  his  democracy  does 
not  stand  alongside  of  the  other  elements,  but 
it  embraces  all.  There  is  no  fault  with 
Symonds'  and  Burroughs'  dissection  of  the  mes 
sage,  but  they  do  not  quite  state  the  relation  of 
democracy  in  it  to  the  other  elements:  democ 
racy  is  the  mother  of  all  Walt's  ideas,  not  a 
sister  to  any  of  them. 

WHITMAN'S  DEMOCRACY 

Thus  it  comes  that  we  consider  Walt's 
Democracy,  not  as  one  of  the  salient  points  in 
his  message,  but  as  the  message  itself.  It  is 
the  warp  and  woof  that  contains  all  else. 
Whitman's  Democracy  was  that  revolutionary 
democracy  that  has  been  trying  to  express  itself 
in  stronger  tones  ever  since  it  first  made  itself 


24  WALT  WHITMAN 

heard  at  all,  "in  the  one  happy  event  in  his 
tory,"  the  French  Revolution.  Democracy  in 
Whitman's  message,  is  liberty,  equality  and  fra 
ternity. 

a  —  His  liberty  is  the  liberty  of  the  individ 
ual,  the  whole  individual.  There  was  no  excuse 
in  his  mind  for  anything  that  infringes  on  the 
liberty  of  the  individual.  This  leads  him  to 
those  parts  of  his  message  spoken  of  as  his 
individuality,  egoism,  self-hood,  religion,  sex 
views,  joy  in  life.  Liberty  for  the  whole  man, 
his  body,  every  part  of  it.  He  resents  all 
power,  restraint,  canons,  governments  that 
hamper  the  freest  development  and  expression 
of  the  individual.  In  all  his  writings,  he  has, 
as  foremost  in  view,  this  healthy,  free  person 
ality. 

"  One's  self  I  sing,  a  simple,  separate  person." 

"  I  will  effuse  egotism,  and  show  it  underlying  all, 
I  will  be  the  bard  of  personality." 

He  insists  that  everything  is  for  the  indi 
vidual;  all  poems,  doctrines,  art,  religion, 


HIS  MESSAGE— DEMOCRACY     25 

civilizations.  He  even  growls  at  his  beloved 
"  States,"  that  they  are  giving  up  "  modesty, 
honesty,  generosity,"  and  have  become  "  keyed 
up  by  money  ideals,  money  politics,  money 
religion,  money  men  "  (Camden,  page  42),  and 
he  does  this  on  the  ground  that  they  are  neglect 
ing  to  develop  the  individual.  And  he  was 
right,  he  wanted  to  level  up,  but  he  saw  money- 
madness  wras  leveling  down.  Because  of  his 
zeal  for  liberty,  Walt  was  ready  to  leave  the 
"  Beaten  Path "  and  travel  "  The  Open 
Road  "— 

"  Henceforth    I   ask   not   good    fortune  —  I    am   good 

fortune  .  .  . 
Strong  and  content  I  travel  the  open  road. 

"  I  am  one  of  those  who  look  carelessly  into  the  faces  of 
Presidents  and  governors  as  to  say  —  who  are 
you?" 

b  —  But  Walt's  egoism  is  as  Burroughs  says, 
u  an  altru-egoism  ":  he  wants  nothing  for  him 
self  that  he  does  not  want  others  to  have  on 
equal  terms.  He  is  for  equality;  equality  of 
all  men  and  both  sexes.  This  led  him  to 


26  WALT  WHITMAN 

further  radical  sex  views,  to  his  humanity  feel 
ings;  and  he  becomes  so  intensely  human  and 
sympathetic.  His  conception  of  democracy  is 
that  of  an  absolute  equality.  Everything  in 
the  universe  is  good  if  it  has  a  show.  The 
creation  is  sound,  evil  is  just  a  part  of  good. 
He  believes  God  made  everything,  hence  it  is 
all  good.  He  speaks  the  word  "  en-masse," 
and  gives  the  sign  of  democracy.  He  crys  out 
for  equality,  of  all  men,  of  the  sexes.  His 
woman  is  the  strong  comrade,  and  the  mother 
of  men :  not  the  weak  toy  and  sweetheart.  All 
men  are  equal,  the  wise  and  the  lacking:  the 
good  and  the  evil:  the  rich  and  the  poor. 
Whitman  is  the  bard  of  them  all,  of  the  suc 
cessful  and  the  failures  as  well;  he  puts  his 
arms  about  the  outcast  and  the  prostitute:  he 
is  as  embracing  as  the  sun  in  the  skies.  Even 
the  hardships  of  the  long-drawn  and  painful 
civilization  do  not  phase  Walt,  and  he  would 
agree  with  Carpenter  ("  Cause  and  Cure  of 
Civilization  ") ,  that  it  all  is  a  sort  of  prolonged 
and  necessary  disease  that  will  eventually  lead 
to  a  fuller  and  better  life.  Like  Tolstoy, 


HIS  MESSAGE— DEMOCRACY     27 

Whitman  had  entered  the  life  of  the  working 
people :  not  the  slums,  not  the  poor  degenerate, 
but  the  working  class. 

And  he  found  among  them  the  healthiest 
elements  of  our  human  life,  the  open-hearted, 
free  men  and  women;  the  honest  workers  living 
in  friendship;  caring  little  for  formalities, 
social  distinctions  and  conventions.  These 
were  the  people  who  in  Walt's  thought  were 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  all  of  us  who  have 
touched  the  different  classes  agree  with  Walt. 
And  so  he  glories  in  the  common-people,  in  the 
sun-tan,  in  the  brawn,  in  the  common;  exalts 
the  uncouth  and  decries  the  cultured  and  effemi 
nate.  He  goes  forth  to  "  toss  the  new  rough 
ness  and  gladness  among  men."  "  Open  your 
scarfed  chin,  while  I  blow  grit  within  you,"  he 
challenges.  His  message  is  for  the  "  divine 
average,"  his  passion  is  to  level  all  up  to  the 
plane  of  the  common  man  and  women,  to  make 
all  like  them  "  superb  persons." 

c  —  Under  the  thought  of  ''comradeship," 
Walt  emphasizes  the  fraternity  side  of  democ 
racy.  His  comradeship  is  not  merely  the 


28  WALT  WHITMAN 

delightful  emotions  between  friends,  but  a 
social,  yes  —  and  political  bond.  Walt  has  all 
the  faith  in  men  that  Jesus  ever  had,  he  says  — 

"  Come,  I  will  make  the  continent  indissoluble ; 
I  will  make  the  most  splendid  race  the  sun  ever  shone 

upon, 

I  will  make  divine  magnetic  lands, 
With  the  love  of  comrades." 

And  again  he  puts  over  against  all  human  in 
stitutions,  states,  churches,  property  and  all, 
that  one  great  institution  of  "  the  dear  love  of 
comrades  "  : 

"  The  dependence  of  Liberty  shall  be  lovers, 
The  continuance  of  Equality  shall  be  comrades." 

He  looks  forward  in  his  message  of  democ 
racy  to  the  better  day,  to  that  new  city  of 
friends,  when  church  and  state,  and  all  hamper 
ing  institutions  and  custom  shall  be  dissolved, 
and  the  Love  of  Comrades  be  the  only  bond  in 
society.  That  may  seem  to  some  to-day,  to 
be  a  very  insecure  bond,  but  to  Walt's  far-see 
ing  vision,  our  present  bonds  of  life  are  more 
insecure.  He  saw  that  social  life  could  not 


HIS  MESSAGE— DEMOCRACY     29 

cohere  by  means   of  lawyers,   agreements   on 
paper  or  force  of  arms. 

Walt's  comradeship  is  then  not  something 
different  from  his  democracy,  it  is  rather  the 
realization  in  human  life  of  his  democracy; 
when  we  reach  that  free  relationship  we  have  it, 
till  then  all  this  talk  about  having  it  is  mere 
chatter.  To  the  short-sighted  Walt  may  ap 
pear  only  destructive,  but  to  those  who  see 
farther  in,  he  is  ever  constructive,  he  wants  to 
throw  away  the  shell,  the  states,  churches, 
emperors,  armies,  and  have  in  their  place  the 
ship  of  democracy.  And  Walt  saw  that  every 
thing  was  working  for  this,  and  that  when  the 
ship  is  launched  there  will  be  stored  in  it,  not 
only  all  the  present  but  all  the  past.  To  make  a 
table  of  analysis  of  the  poet's  message,  I 
would  draw  it  thus  — 

DEMOCRACY 
LIBERTY  EQUALITY  FRATERNITY 

Self-Hood  Humanism  Comradeship 

Sex  Values  Sex-equality 

Religion 
Joys  in  life 


30  WALT  WHITMAN 

That  Walt  was  no  mere  preacher,  but  was 
sincerely  in  earnest  in  this  message  is  abund 
antly  testified  to  by  his  hospital  work  in  the 
army,  and  such  incidents  as  his  assisting  the  sin- 
trampled  youth  to  escape  the  Boston  police  and 
escape  into  Canada. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

HIS   RELIGION 

"  I  hear  and  behold  God  in  every  object, 

yet  understanding  God  not  in  the  least. 
In  the  faces  of  men  and  women  I  see  God, 

and  in  my  own  face  in  the  glass; 
I  find  letters  from  God  dropped  in  the  streets 
and  every  one  signed  by  God's  name." 

WALT  Whitman  was  a  profoundly  reli 
gious  man,  though  his  religion  was  so 
broad  and  advanced,  that  he  had  little  sympathy 
with  the  organized  institutions  of  religion. 
The  only  religious  order  that  he  had  at  any 
time  anything  like  sympathetic  feelings  for, 
were  the  Hicksite  Quakers;  their  influence  on 
his  life  and  views  was  considerable.  Walt  be- 
lived  in  God,  immortality,  religion;  but  not  in 
Christ,  the  Bible  or  the  church,  at  least  accord 
ing  to  the  generally  accepted  Christian  views. 
Whitman's  God,  was  the  immanent  God  of  the 

31 


32  WALT  WHITMAN 

most  radical  new  theology,  whom  he  felt  40 
years  before  these   theologians   deduced  him. 
Goethe  sang — 

"  God  dwells  within  and  moves  within  the  world  and 

molds, 
Himself  and  Nature  in  one  form  enfolds, — " 

and  with  this  agrees  the  view  of  Whitman,  which 
"  sees  God  in  every  object."  This  God  of 
Walt's  is  not  one  who  reveals  himself,  or  to 
whom  we  may  pray  in  a  Christian  sense,  but 
he  is  the  Eternal  Good-Will,  which  back  there 
in  the  Universe,  is  the  Cause  of  all  things,  and 
on  whom  the  race  may  in  confidence  rely.  And 
this  confidence,  or  reliance  on  this  God,  this 
state  of  mental  rest  which  sees  and  feels 
Divinity  in  everything,  was  what  Walt  meant  by 
his  religion,  and  he  ranked  it  very  high.  He 
says,  "  the  real  and  permanent  grandeur  of 
these  states  must  be  their  religion."  And  again, 
"  There  can  be  no  character  or  life  without 
religion."  He  also  teaches  that  we  may  rely 
upon  this  Good-Will  for  personal  life  beyond 
the  grave,  for  immortality;  as  he  expresses  it, 


HIS  RELIGION  33 

"  I  laugh  at  what  you  call  dissolution." 

Toward  Jesus  Walt  had  a  very  tender  feel 
ing,  and  a  reverence  for  him  as  a  great  Teacher : 
the  poem,  "  To  Him  Who  Was  Crucified,-' 
shows  this.  Walt  speaks  in  one  place  of 
"  Walking  the  hills  of  Judea  with  the  beautiful 
gentle  God  by  my  side."  In  another  place  he 
calls  Jesus  "  The  Lord  Christ,"  but  these  ex 
pressions  were  not  in  the  sense  of  ordinary 
accepted  Christian  faith.  As  for  the  Bible,  and 
forms  of  worship  and  churches,  he  says,  "  We 
consider  Bibles  and  religion  divine,  that  is,  they 
grow  out  of  us."  Here  he  means  to  say  that 
they  are  divine  as  we  are  divine,  as  everything 
is  divine,  but  not  in  any  other  sense.  Walt 
saw  no  special  revelation,  in  fact  to  him  it  was 
not  needed,  all  is  revelation.  For  this  religion, 
this  sort  of  a  natural,  pantheistic  theism,  Walt 
was  ever  urgent  in  his  demands,  and  he  de 
clares  — 

"  No  man  was  ever  half  devout  enough  — 

None  have  ever  yet  adored  or  worshiped  half  enough, 

None  has  ever  begun  to  see  how  divine,  he  himself  is." 


34  WALT  WHITMAN 

And  again,  we  hear  him  say,  "  I  know  I  am 
deathless."  "A  mouse  is  enough  to  stagger 
sextillions  of  infidels."  "  I  do  not  despise  you 
priests,  my  faith  is  the  greatest  of  faiths." 
Whitman's  religion  was  then  very  near  that  of 
the  advanced  liberal  of  to-day,  a  sort  of  natural 
istic  theism.  But  with  the  liberal  denomina 
tions  Walt  found  little  more  sympathy  than 
with  the  orthodox;  the  Quakers  and  their  inner 
light  came  nearest  to  his  ideas.  And  Whitman 
held  his  conceptions  to  the  end.  The  attitude 
of  mind  he  reveals  in  his  heart-to-heart  talks 
with  Traubel  during  the  closing  years,  is  the 
attitude  of  his  whole  life.  These  talks  at 
Camden  show  to  the  last  Walt's  strong  belief 
in  God,  in  immortality,  in  the  worth  of  religion. 
It  is  true  Whitman  is  listed  as  a  free-thinker, 
and  that  he  manifests  a  deep  detest  of  preachers 
and  churches,  but  the  basis  of  all  this  was  his 
religion,  not  his  lack  of  it.  And  his  attitude 
toward  Jesus  in  these  last  days,  is  the  same  as 
that  of  earlier  days,  he  sees  in  Jesus  the  great 
soul,  the  prophet-comrade,  nothing  more.  To 
quote  from  some  of  Walt's  talks  at  Camden,  he 


HIS  RELIGION  35 

says  (page  97)  speaking  of  Cable,  "  he  is  the 
thinnest  man,  the  most  uninteresting,  I  ever  met 
—  he  is  a  typical  Sunday  School  Superintendent 
with  all  that  signifies."  And  what  it  signifies 
to  Walt,  he  shows  us  when  he  says,  "  The  last 
person  in  the  world  from  whom  I  should  expect 
any  inspiration  would  be  the  average  Sunday 
School  teacher  —  the  typical  good  man  of  the 
churches,  the  money  bags  of  the  parish." 
Probably  there  would  not  be  to-day  so  strong  a 
tendency  to  criticise  Walt  for  such  utterances 
as  there  was  when  he  made  them.  Walt's 
criticisms  of  the  churchVere  indeed  very  search 
ing,  he  says  in  one  place,  "  The  negative  virtues 
of  the  church  are  to  me  very  abhorrent;  the 
morals  of  the  church  would  be  morals  if  they 
were  not  something  else." 

At  another  place  he  remarks,  about  as  Tol 
stoy  later  remarked,  "  That  he  had  often  tried 
to  discover  how  Jesus  and  the  churches  got  so 
divorced,  how  the  institution  came  to  destroy 
the  spirit."  Walt  took  as  a  concrete  case 
John  Wanamaker,  who  refused  to  allow  the 
"  Leaves  "  to  be  sold  in  his  store.  "  The  whole 


36  WALT  WHITMAN 

ideal  of  the  church  is  low,  loathsome,  horrible, 
a  sort  of  moral  degradation,  out  of  touch  with 
the  struggles  of  contemporary  humanity/' 
bitterly  complains  Walt. 

When  the  question  was  put  to  him,  if  he 
thought  the  churches  could  safely  be  destroyed, 
he  replied,  "  Yes,  why  not:  I  see  no  use  for  the 
church  if  it  lags  behind  the  age."  He  says, 
4  The  distinctly  preacher  ages  are  gone  —  the 
world  is  done  with  sermonizing  —  I  am  not 
sorry." 

Walt  was  tremendously  interested  in  his 
friend  Ingersoll,  and  gloried  in  Ingersoll's 
whacks  at  the  church,  and  his  triumphs  over  his 
antagonists,  especially  his  triumph  over  Glad 
stone. 

Yet  Walt  distinctly  denies  any  bitterness 
toward  the  church;  he  says  in  one  of  his  Camden 
talks,  "  People  thought  I  was  powerful  set 
against  the  church,  but  the  church  never 
bothered  me,  and  I  have  never  bothered  the 
church  —  it  is  a  clean-cut  bargain  between  us." 
"  I  have  nothing  at  all  with  the  letter  of  the 
church,  but  that  part  of  the  church  which  is  not 


HIS  RELIGION  37 

jailed  in  church  buildings  is  all  mine  as  well  as 
anybody's."  Walt's  feeling  about  Jesus  is 
reiterated  in  these  last  days,  when  he  declares 
to  Corning  and  Clifford,  the  Unitarian  ministers 
who  visit  him,  that  he  holds  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus  to  have  been  but  one  of  many  tragedies, 
and  that  the  life  of  Jesus  was  just  another  life, 
"  told  big  to  be  sure,  but  just  another  life." 
When  Walt  heard  for  the  first  time  Ingersoll's 
eulogy  on  the  "  Leaves  of  Grass,"  he  gratefully 
acknowledged  the  tribute,  but  pointed  out  that 
Ingersoll  had  stopped  short  of  the  plain  matter, 
"  and  that  '  Leaves  of  Grass '  was  crammed 
full  of  immortality,  bound  together  by  the  idea 
of  a  resident  purpose  in  humanity  and  the  uni 
verse."  Again  he  declares,  "  People  say  the 
1  Leaves  '  want  in  religion,  but  I  think  it  is  the 
most  religious  of  books  —  it  is  crammed  full  of 
faith  —  faith  is  its  one  substance,  without  it,  it 
would  be  an  empty  vessel."  These  statements 
show  that  Walt  never  changed  his  attitude  on 
religion,  that  at  70  he  held  to  the  same  faith  as 
at  35.  And  that  his  religion  was  worth  some 
thing  to  him,  is  seen  by  the  support  it  gives  him 


38  WALT  WHITMAN 

in  the  burden  of  his  sickness.  It  shines  out  in 
those  trying  sick  years  of  '74  and  '75,  like  the 
faith  of  St.  Francis.  See  his  recorded  moods  in 
"  The  Song  of  the  Universal,"  "  The  Prayer  of 
Columbus,"  or  "  The  Song  of  the  Red  Wood 
Tree."  Hear  him  cry  out, 

"All,  all  for  immortality: 
Love,  like  the  light,  silently  wrapping  all." 

Speaking  to  God  of  his  faith  he  says  — 

"  Belief  in  plan  of  Thee  enclosed  in  time  and  space, 
Health,  peaces,  salvation  universal." 

Few  men  have  felt  more  secure  of  personal 
immortality  than  Walt  Whitman.  He  says, 
"  I  believe  in  immortality;  and  by  that  I  mean 
identity.  I  have  arrived  at  this  result  more  by 
feeling  than  by  formal  reason,  but  I  believe  it, 
yes  I  know  it." 

And  lest  he  be  misunderstood  he  declares 
again  a  few  days  later,  "  When  I  say  immortality 
—  I  mean  identity,  the  survival  of  the  personal 
soul,  your  survival,  my  survival.  If  there  is 
not  immortality  then  the  universe  is  a  fraud.  I 


HIS  RELIGION  39 

agree  with  Epictetus,  that  what  is  good  enough 
for  the  universe  is  good  enough  for  me;  the 
universe  is  immortal  and  so  am  I."  Whitman 
would  agree  with  Thoreau  in  saying,  "  one 
world  at  a  time,"  but  he  would  go  on  to  maintain 
that  the  very  expression  involved  another  world, 
as  indeed  it  does. 

I  close  this  reference  to  Whitman's  religion  by 
referring  the  reader  to  his  "  Prayer  of  Colum 
bus."  Let  those  classical  critics  who  say  Walt 
could  not  write  poetry,  and  those  ecclesiastical 
critics  who  say  Walt  had  no  religion,  tell  us 
what  to  do  with  it,  if  it  be  not  a  genuine  poetic 
expression  of  deep  religious  faith. 

Old,  paralyzed,  battered,  worn  and  poor, 
just  on  the  margin  of  the  Ocean  of  Death,  Walt 
here  pours  out  the  secrets  of  his  soul,  "  under 
a  thin  historical  disguise,"  as  Binn  well  calls  it. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

THE    NATURE   LOVER 

"  Doubtless  there  comes  a  time,  and  perhaps  it  has 
come  to  me,  when  one  feels  through  his  whole  being, 
and  pronouncedly  the  emotional  part,  the  identity 
between  himself  and  Naflir^  which  Schelling  and 
Fichte  are  so  fond  of  pressing.  How  it  is  I  know  not, 
but  I  often  realize  a  presence  here,  in  clear  moods  I  am 
certain  of  it,  and  neither  chemistry  nor  aesthetics  will 
give  the  least  explanation." 

<(  The  Oaks  and  //'  Specimen  Days. 

WALT  Whitman's  place  among  the  pre 
eminent   Nature-Lovers   of   the   world 
can  be  disputed  by  no  one.     His  feeling  for 
Nature  was  far  beyond  that  of  the  average  man. 
Dr.  Bucke  says,   "Walt's  favorite  occupation 
was  to   stroll  about  out  of  doors,   sauntering 
away  by  himself,  looking  at  the  grass,  flowers, 
trees,  vistas  of  light,  changing  aspects  of  the 
sky,  listening  to  the  birds,  the  insects,  tree-frogs, 
40 


THE  NATURE  LOVER  41 

and  all  the  hundreds  of  natural  sounds.  It  was 
evident  that  these  things  gave  him  a  pleasure 
far  beyond  what  they  give  ordinary  people. 
Until  I  knew  him  I  did  not  dream  that  these 
things  could  give  one  the  absolute  happiness 
they  gave  him."  Bucke's  testimony  is  truthful 
and  well  deserved,  for  one  has  but  to  study 
Walt's  life  to  see  him  the  Nature-Lover.  As  a 
lad  we  find  him  lying  on  the  sand,  gazing  into 
the  sea,  spellbound  by  its  awe  and  mysticism. 
We  see  him  the  robust  man,  seeing  and  feeling 
Nature's  great  heart.  And  the  convalescent 
down  in  the  lane  at  Timber-Creek  finds  healing 
and  happiness  in  the  caressing  air  and  sunshine, 
and  he  feels  the  all  embracing  love.  The  old 
man  drives  his  horse  into  the  ocean  and  sits  an 
hour  enjoying  the  sunset  and  gets  the  cold  that 
brings  on  death.  Whitman  has  left  us  abun 
dant  testimony  of  what  he  felt  and  saw  in 
Nature;  I  can  here  take  space  to  pick  up  but  a 
few  of  these  things  — 

"  Oxen  that  rattle  the  yoke  and  chain  or  halt  in  the 

leafy  shade, 
What  is  that  you  express  in  your  eyes? 


42  WALT  WHITMAN 

It  seems  to  me  more  than  all  the  print  I  ever  read." 
Or  again,  his  feeling  of  "  The  Night  "— 

"  I  am  one  that  walks  with  the  tender  and  growing 
night, 

I  call  to  the  earth  and  sea,  half-held  by  the  night. 

Press  close,  bare-bosomed  night  —  Press  close  mag 
netic  nourishing  night; 

Night  of  the  south  winds,  night  of  the  large  few  stars : 

Still  nodding  night,  mad,  naked,  summer  night." 

He  listens  to  the  Katy-Did  and  records  his 
feeling  by  saying,  "  The  Katy-Did,  how  shall  I 
describe  its  piquant  utterance  —  every  night  it 
soothes  me  to  sleep.'1  And  the  only  tone  of 
pathos  that  comes  from  him  in  the  old  crippled 
years,  is  that  wrung  from  his  lips  by  the  thought 
that  he  must  give  up  something  of  this  out-doors, 
this  direct  touch  with  Nature.  He  cries  out  to 
us,  "  I  am  an  open-air  man:  I  am  an  open-water 
man.  I  want  to  get  out,  fly,  swim,  I  am  eager 
for  my  feet  again.  But  my  feet  are  eternally 
gone." 

But  Whitman  was  not  only  the  supreme 
feeler  of  Nature,  he  was  also  the  creator  of 
a  literary  style  particularly  adapted  to  the  ex- 


THE  NATURE  LOVER  43 

pression  of  the  great  emotions  that  Nature 
makes  her  appreciative  children  feel.  When 
Bryant  wanted  to  express  these  emotions,  he 
found  as  Blake  had  found,  that  the  rhyme  and 
rhythm  of  ordinary  verse  were  all  insufficient, 
and  he  took  recourse  to  the  stately  lines  of 
blank  verse.  But  Walt  went  a  step  farther  and 
created  a  style  of  his  own,  a  literary  form  of 
expression  that  is  distinctly  the  out-doors  style. 

Ed.  Carpenter,  who  is  Whitman's  fore 
most  disciple,  says  he  has  to  go  out  of  doors 
to  write  in  Whitman  style,  that  if  he  attempt 
to  write  inside  his  thoughts  insist  on  rhyming, 
but  the  minute  he  goes  outside  Whitman  verse 
is  the  result.  "  Whitman  verse  and  the  great 
serene,  untempered  facts  of  the  Earth  go  to 
gether,"  declares  Carpenter. 

Crosby  speaking  on  this  point  says,  "  The 
trim  balance  of  a  Christmas  tree  with  colored 
candles  and  gilt  balls  and  stars  is  beautiful  in  a 
way,  but  it  is  the  want  of  symmetry  that  helps 
make  the  oak  and  the  pine,  kings  of  the  forest. 
And  even  blank  verse  with  all  its  grandeur  is 
too  suggestive  of  landscape  gardening,  or  the 


44  WALT  WHITMAN 

studied  roughness  of  rock  gardens."  The  con 
clusion  is  that  Whitmanic  verse  is  the  natural 
form  of  out-door  expression.  I  can  but  here 
add  my  personal  word,  that  for  me,  there  is 
no  form  of  expression  so  adequate  to  reveal  the 
feelings  we  get  in  the  soul  when  out  under  the 
trees,  as  this  style  of  Whitman's. 

Walt's  rapture  of  Nature  reaches  the  point 
of  a  religion  and  has  been  often  pointed  out. 
The  note  sounded  by  Goethe,  that  u  God  and 
Nature  in  one  form  enfolds,"  was  certainly  ably 
seconded  by  him  who  declared  he  saw,  heard  and 
felt  "  God  in  every  object." 

Whitman  tells  us  his  book  is  to  be  read 
"  Among  the  cooling  influences  of  external 
Nature."  And  he  goes  on  to  define  what  he 
means  by  Nature,  "  not  the  smooth  walks, 
trimmed  hedges,  butterflies,  posies  and  nightin 
gales  of  the  English  poets,  but  the  whole  orb, 
with  its  geologic  history,  the  Kosmos  carrying 
fire  and  snow,  that  rolls  through  the  illimitable 
areas,  light  as  a  feather  though  carrying  mil 
lions  of  tons." 
— ,  Nature  to  him  is  the  whole  big  world  carry- 


THE  NATURE  LOVER  45 

ing  everything  with  it.  In  his  preface  to  the 
Leaves  he  tells  us  of  the  effect  on  one's  conduct, 
of  this  love  of  the  Earth,  and  it  is  the  best  sum 
ming  up  of  his  feeling  that  we  have  and  I  quote 
it  in  closing  this  consideration;  he  says  — 

"  This  is  what  you  shall  do,  love  the  earth,  and  sun, 
and  animals,  despise  riches,  give  alms  to  everyone  who 
asks,  stand  up  for  the  stupid  and  crazy,  devote  your 
labor  and  income  to  others,  hate  tyrants,  argue  not  con 
cerning  God,  have  patience  and  indulgence  toward  the 
people,  take  off  your  hat  to  nothing  known  or  unknown, 
or  to  any  man  or  number  of  men;  go  freely  with  the 
powerful  uneducated  people,  and  with  the  young,  and 
with  the  mothers  of  families;  read  these  Leaves 
(Leaves  of  Grass)  in  the  open  air  every  season  of  the 
year.  Re-examine  what  you  have  been  taught  in  the 
schools,  or  in  the  church,  or  in  books,  and  reject  what 
ever  insults  your  own  soul." 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

HIS    NOTE    OF   JOY 

"  I  dote  on  myself  —  there  is  that  lot  of  me, 

and  all  so  luscious ; 
Each  moment,  and  whatever  happens,  thrills  me  with 

joy." 

I  KNOW  of  no  place  where  we  get  such 
an  interpretation  of  the  joyousness  of  just 
living,  as  we  do  in  the  poems  of  Whitman. 
Burroughs  speaking  of  Whitman's  life  describes 
it  as  being,  "  free,  unhampered,  unworldly,  un 
conventional,  picturesque,  simple,  untouched  by 
the  craze  of  money  getting,  a  joyfully  contented 
life."  "  Whitman's  life,"  continues  Burroughs, 
"  was  a  saunter  through  the  years,  too  busy  in 
enjoying  life  to  be  disturbed  by  anything."  But 
let  us  hear  Whitman  for  himself,  he  says — 

"  I  am  enamored  of  growing  out-doors; 
Of  men  that  live  among  cattle, 

or  taste  of  the  ocean  or  woods; 
46 


HIS  NOTE  OF  JOY  4? 

Of  the  builders  and  steerers  of  ships, 

and  the  wielders  of  axes  and  mauls, 
and  the  drivers  of  horses; 

I  can  eat  and  sleep  with  them, 
week  in  and  week  out." 

Now  here  we  certainly  have  the  picture,  not 
of  the  effete  and  pampered,  such  has  become  so 
good  an  example  of  aristocratic  success,  and  in 
emulation  of  which,  half  the  world  has  worn 
itself  pale  and  discontented,  but  we  have  the 
robust,  healthy  man.  Such  a  man  as  any  of  us 
may  be,  and  being  so,  may  find  life  worth  living. 
Walt  shows  us  that  the  truest  joy  does  not  come 
from  the  attainment  of  those  things  which  we  do 
not  care  for,  but  which  an  abnormal  society  says 
we  must  have.  Walt  says  to  us  that  the  true 
joy  of  life  comes  in  the  living  out  of  our  true 
selves.  Developing  those  loves,  longings  and 
desires  that  are  especially  ours.  As  he  puts  it 
for  us  in  one  of  his  verses  — 

"  When  I  heard  at  the  close  of  day  how  my  name  had 
been    received    with    plaudits    in    the   capitol, 
still  it  was  not  a  happy  night  that  followed. 


48  WALT  WHITMAN 

And  else  when  I  caroused,  or  when  my  plans  were 

accomplished,  still  I  was  not  happy; 
But  the   day  when   I   rose  at  dawn   from  the  bed  of 

perfect  health,  refreshed,  singing,  inhaling  the  ripe 

breath  of  autumn, 
When  I  saw  the  full  moon  in  the  west  grow  pale  and 

disappear  in  the  morning  light, 
When   I   wandered   alone  over  the  beach,   undressed, 

bathed,   laughed   with   the  cool  waters,   saw   the 

sunrise, 

And  thought  of  my  dear  friends  on  their  way  coming, 
Then  I  was  happy." 

Here  we  have  it,  there  is  nothing  necessary 
to  be  happy,  but  to  just  live :  live,  freed  from 
conventions  and  false  pursuits,  just  live  naturally 
and  be  possessed  by  the  joys  that  are  all  about 
us. 

Perhaps  many  of  us  have  tried  at  some  fool 
ish  period  in  our  life,  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of 
snobbish  society  (I  have,  may  God  forgive  me) , 
to  stand  about  in  a  stiff  collar  and  starched 
shirt  and  black  coat  and  white  vest.  To 
daintily  sip  from  a  cup  of  cocoa  or  punch,  to 
nibble  from  some  little  bit  —  was  there  any 
joy  in  doing  this?  Do  we  not  see,  that  being 


HIS  NOTE  OF  JOY  49 

down  at  the  beach,  lolling  in  the  sand,  bare 
footed,  collarless  and  coatless,  watching  the 
crested  waves  come  in  and  recede,  to  be  filled 
with  the  music  of  their  roar:  to  open  the  lunch 
and  ply  ourselves  vigorously  to  the  pie  and 
hunk  of  cheese,  do  we  not  see  that  as  Walt 
shows  us,  here  comes  joy.  To  go  into  the 
barn  of  any  thrifty  farmer,  fill  our  nostrils  of 
the  cattle,  horses  and  hay,  stroke  their  sleek 
sides,  look  into  their  eyes,  feel  their  fellow 
ship,  their  life,  does  not  this  spell  for  us  sweet 
ness  and  joy?  Anything  that  is  natural  contains 
joy.  Live  in  our  own  way,  shun  conventional 
make-shifts,  and  joy  awaits  us,  says  Whitman. 
Let  us  look  at  Walt  as  he  presents  himself  in 
the  1860  edition  of  his  poems, — 

"  His  shape  arises 

Arrogant,  masculine,  naive,  rowdyish, 

Laugher,  weeper,  worker,  idler,  citizen,  countryman, 

Saunterer  of  woods,  stander  upon  hills, 

summer  swimmer  in  rivers  or  seas  — 
Countenance  sunburnt,  bearded,  unrefined, 
Reminder  of  animals,  meeter  of  savage  and  gentlemen 

on  equal  terms, 


50  WALT  WHITMAN 

Passer  of  the  right  hand  around  the  shoulder 

of  his  friends, 
Enterer  every  where,  welcomed  every  where, 

easily  understood  by  all  " — 

Such  was  this  man,  this  democrat,  with  a 
message  that  we  can  all  hear  and  carry  out. 
The  man  freed  from  conventions,  living  his 
life  in  his  own  way,  and  finding  it  as  his  bi 
ographer  says,  "  one  long  joyful  lot."  It  is 
his  philosophy  of  life  which  is  preeminently 
fitted  to  lead  one  to  realize  the  joy  in  just  liv 
ing.  "  Leaves  of  Grass,"  is  the  text-book  of 
the  joy  of  life,  and  the  one  who  studies  it 
long  enough  to  get  its  message,  will  come  to  ac 
cept  its  gospel,  to  quote  again  — 

"To  breathe  the  air,  how  delicious: 

To  speak,  to  walk,  to  seize  something  by  the  hand: 

O  the  amazement  of  things: 

0  the  spirituality  of  things  — 

1  praise  with  electric  voice, 

For   I    do   not   see   one   imperfection   in   the   universe, 
I  do  not  see  one  cause  or  result  lamentable  at  last." 

Elbert  Hubbard  sums  up  with  a  stroke  of 
genius,  the  whole  story,  when  he  says,  "  Milton 


HIS  NOTE  OF  JOY  51 

told  us  all  about  heaven,  Dante  told  us  all 
about  hell,  but  it  remained  for  Walt  Whitman 
to  tell  us  about  the  earth." 

Binns  is  another  who  notes  this  "  Note  of 
joy  "  in  Walt,  he  says,  "  The  pages  of  '  Leaves 
of  Grass  '  portray  the  happy  man.  Byron  may 
dominate  the  whole  of  Europe  for  a  genera 
tion  by  the  dark,  Satanic  splendor  of  his  pride: 
Carlyle  may  hold  us  by  his  fierce,  lean  passion 
for  sincerity:  but  Whitman  draws  us  by  the 
outshining  of  his  joy." 

And  so  Walt  does  tell  us  of  the  earth,  of 
the  joys,  the  common  joys  of  life,  accessible  to 
most  all  of  us.  Walt  tells  of  the  good  things 
we  may  have  now.  While  other  poets  are 
ever  looking  back  and  grieving  for  the  return 
of  childhood's  happy  days,  or  looking  ahead 
to  see  that  "  man  never  is,  but  always  is  to  be 
blest,"  Walt  sings  of  the  beauties  and  glories 
of  the  present  life.  He  rebukes  our  groans  and 
sighs,  he  bids  us  look  out  and  see  the  wonders 
of  creatipn,  he  shows  us  we  ought  never  to  out 
grow  the  child's  delight  at  the  wonders  of  life, 
he  lifts  us  up,  he  gives  us  courage,  manly  pride, 


52  WALT  WHITMAN 

self-reliance,  and  the  strong  faith  that  comes 
to  us  when  we  feel  real  kinship  with  the  Heart 
of  the  Universe.  To  sum  it  up  Walt  infuses 
into  his  disciple  the  u  Joy  of  Living."  And  this 
note  in  Walt's  life  never  deserted  him. 

He  even  treated  of  death,  his  own  death,  in 
a  similar  vein.  He  thinks  of  it  as  a  soothing, 
beautiful  voyage,  he  describes  it  as  that  ex 
ulting  moment  when  the  vessel  leaves  the 
shore  — 

"  Joy,  shipmate,  joy! 
Pleased  to  my  soul  at  death  I  cry: 
Our  life  is  closed  —  our  life  begins: 
The  long,  long  anchorage  we  leave ; 
The  ship  is  clear,  at  last  she  leaps  — 
She  swiftly  courses  from  the  shore: 
Joy,  shipmate ;  Joy !  " 

He  welcomes  it  by  saying — "  Come,  lovely, 
soothing  and  delicate  Death."  He  figures  it 
as  a  dark  "  mother  gliding  with  soft  footsteps," 
to  relieve. 

Such  is  the  "  Note  of  Joy  "  in  Whitman's 
message.  The  snatches  of  quotation  I  have 


HIS  NOTE  OF  JOY  53 

made  have  been  suggestive  rather  than  exhaus 
tive. 

I  have  not  touched  his  long  poem  entitled, 
"  Poem  of  Joys,"  where  he  starts  out  he  tells 
us,  "  to  make  the  most  jubilant  poem,"  and 
where  he  speaks  of  the  joy  of  his  spirit  "  un 
caged,  darting  like  lightning,"  and  in  which  he 
goes  on  to  treat  of  the  exultant  moments  in 
the  common  toils  of  men.  His  work  is  full  of 
this  "  Note  of  Joy."  I  have  simply  purposed 
to  draw  attention  to  the  fact,  and  to  show  that 
no  treatment  of  Walt  is  complete  that  does 
not  take  note  of  it. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

THE    POET    PIONEER 

"  I  will  lock  horns  for  a  moment  with  the  question 
of  art.  With  hardly  an  exception  the  poets  of  the  day 
devote  themselves  mainly,  sometimes  altogether,  to  fine 
rhyme,  spicy  verbalism,  the  fabric  and  cut  of  the  gar 
ment,  jewelry  and  style.  I  have  not  bothered  much 
about  style,  form,  art  —  never  allowed  them  to  impede 
me  nor  assume  mastery  over  me." 

"Good-By  My  Fancy." 

WHITMAN  was  a  pioneer  among  poetic 
writers  in  two  things,  his  form  of  expres 
sion  and  his  use  of  sex  images.     His  position 
was  so  unique,  and  came  upon  us  so  abruptly, 
that  we  are  not  yet  over  discussing  it,  and  any 
treatment  of  the  poet  must  consider  it.     True, 
Carpenter  in  his  recent  excellent  study  dismisses 
the  question  as  one,  "  futile  because  wholly  rhe 
torical,"  but  this  dismission  will  hardly  suffice. 
First  let  us  take  up  Walt's  form  of  expression. 

54 


THE  POET  PIONEER  55 

Is  it  poetry,  or  only  prose  in  disguise,  as  his 
enemies  declare.  The  answer  we  will  give  will 
probably  depend  upon  our  theory  of  what  art 
really  is.  If  we  regard  the  true  artist  as  the 
one  who  mixes  colors  or  disposes  words,  then  we 
will  hardly  put  Walt  in  the  class  with  those 
workers,  like  Tennyson  for  instance,  who  take 
a  very  slender  line  of  thought  and  work  it  over 
and  over  for  40  years  till  it  becomes  well  nigh 
technically  perfect.  But  if  we  regard  as  the 
artist,  the  man  who  reproduces  in  you  the  emo 
tions  that  he  felt  when  he  saw  with  eagle  eye, 
and  sang  or  painted,  then  we  must  rate  Walt  as 
far  above  such  as  Tennyson  as  the  moon  is  above 
the  stars.  The  popular  objection  to  Walt's 
abandonment  of  the  common  meter  and  rhyme, 
is  not  so  formidable  as  it  appears,  upon  reflec 
tion  a  bit.  When  we  pause  to  think  a  bit  we 
begin  to  see  with  Shelley,  that  the  rule  estab 
lished  in  literature  that  writers  of  prose  must 
seek  new  forms  while  writers  of  poetry  may 
not,  is  a  bad  rule.  We  begin  to  feel  that  we 
should  hail  a  pioneer.  And  Whitman  is  that 
poet-pioneer,  as  Stedman  says,  "  '  Leaves  of 


56  WALT  WHITMAN 

Grass  '  in  thought  and  method  is  avowedly  a 
protest  against  a  hackneyed  breed  of  singers, 
singing  the  same  old  songs."  And  we  have  a 
higher  authority  that  Stedman,  we  have  the 
poet  himself,  in  his  own  summing  up  of  him 
self  in  a  review,  he  says  —  "  An  American 
bard  at  last  —  one  of  the  roughs,  large,  proud, 
affectionate,  eating,  drinking  and  breeding  — 
his  costume  manly  and  free,  his  face  sun-burnt 
and  bearded.  For  intellectual  people  who 
follow  their  reading,  dress  and  eating  by  Lon 
don  or  Paris  —  who  keep  in  out  of  doors,  never 
touch  the  earth  bare-foot,  he  does  not  sing.  No 
tea-drinking  poet  is  Walt  Whitman,  but  a  rude 
child  of  the  people." 

However  much  some  may  criticise  Walt's 
taste,  or  lack  of  it,  in  writing  this  view  about 
himself,  it  must  stand  as  the  authoritative  sum 
ming-up  of  what  he  meant  by  his  work,  and  how 
he  most  desired  it  should  be  regarded.  I  know 
of  no  statement  that  has  ever  been  made,  that 
I  believe  would  have  pleased  Walt  so  much,  as 
that  of  Prof.  Carpenter,  when  he  says  of  Walt, 
"  For  the  first  time  in  our  modern  centuries  a 


THE  POET  PIONEER  57 

poet  had  been  born  of  the  people  who  was  not 
a  renegade."  We  must  also  recall  that  other 
writers,  notably  Shelley  and  Emerson,  had 
lamented  the  narrow  confines  of  poetic  form, 
and  even  experimented  along  the  line  of  new 
development.  They  did  not  succeed,  Whitman 
did.  Whitman  tried  the  classical  forms  and 
found  them  insufficient,  that  they  were  not 
adapted  to  him  nor  he  to  them,  so  he  boldly 
threw  them  out,  with  a  courage  native  to  him 
self,  and  originated  the  irregular  lines  better 
adapted  to  his  self-expression.  His  own  de 
fense  was  set  forth  in  his  manifesto  preface  to 
the  first  edition  and  the  words  that  sum  up  his 
idea,  are  "  simplicity  and  originality  of  expres 
sion."  Walt's  lines  are  not,  however,  utterly 
abandoned,  they  are  indeed  carefully  chosen; 
and  he  tells  us  he  searched  for  proper  words  and 
forms  as  much  as  the  most  careful  stylist.  He 
once  told  Burroughs  he  had  been  searching  for 
25  years  for  a  word  to  express  what  the  twi 
light  song  of  the  robins  meant  to  him.  The 
wonderful  amount  of  expression  contained  in 
the  titles  of  his  pieces  shows  to  us  that  his  words 


58  WALT  WHITMAN 

were  not  stumbled  on,  but  carefully  and  power 
fully  selected.  The  same  care  is  shown  in  the 
length  of  his  lines,  and  they  come  to  make  for 
us  neither  prose  nor  poem,  but  a  sort  of  free 
and  yet  measured  chant.  They  do  not  lend 
themselves  readily  to  popularity,  they  are  hardly 
quotable  like  rhymed  things.  Tennyson  once 
declared  for  rhyme  because  it  assisted  the 
memory,  but  Ingersoll  well  points  out,  that  with 
the  use  of  the  printing  press,  the  old  idea  of 
a  poet  being  also  a  rhymester  is  no  longer  neces 
sary.  Ingersoll  even  went  further  and  declared 
rhyme  was  a  hindrance,  because  it  compelled 
the  poet  to  wander  from  his  subject  and  inter 
fered  with  his  dramatic  action,  which,  as  poetry 
is  the  sudden,  short  bursting  into  blossom  of  a 
great  thought,  must  destroy  poetry.  Walt's 
lines  then  can  never  go  into  the  school-room  and 
displace  Longfellow's  "  Psalm  of  Life."  And 
there  is  a  certain  stateliness  in  the  lines  of  "  In 
Memoriam  "  which  we  miss  in  Walt's  chants. 
But  there  is  a  strength,  a  ruggedness,  an  out 
door  and  elemental  somewhat  in  Walt's  chants 
that  makes  them  true  poems,  and  one  of  the 


THE  POET  PIONEER  59 

grand  forms  of  literary  expression.  We  do  not 
look  for  Whitman's  forms  to  displace  the 
ordinary  forms,  but  we  look  for  them  to  rise,  if 
they  have  not  already  done  so,  to  a  recognized 
position  as  a  needed  and  essential  form  of  liter 
ary  expression;  that  has  an  equal  worth  with 
any  other,  and  that  has  a  strength  and  freedom 
that  can  never  be  attained  in  rhyme  and  meter. 
Whitman  then  was  a  poet,  even  though,  as  he 
says,  he  did  not  make  poetry  with  reference  to 
parts. 

To  those  who  want  sweet  songs  of  domestic 
sentiments,  of  course  others  like  Longfellow 
will  be  preferred;  but  to  those  who  are  strong 
enough  to  receive  it,  Walt's  poetry  will  come  as 
a  gospel,  and  a  gospel  of  beauty,  even  though  in 
a  new  and  strange  form. 

The  second  great  objection  to  Whitman  as  a 
poet  is  because  of  the  sexual  character  of  many 
of  his  images.  Now  we  must  begin  by  under 
standing  the  place  of  sex  in  Walt's  scheme  of 
things  —  he  is  going  to  speak  of  all,  and  to  show 
that  all  is  good.  Inklings  of  the  Hegelian  phi 
losophy  have  come  through  to  Walt,  he  finds 


60  WALT  WHITMAN 

everything  has  a  place  in  the  world  purposes. 
Now  it  is  manifest  that  Walt  cannot  carry  out 
this  idea,  and  omit  so  big  a  part  of  human  life 
and  experience  as  sex.  This  would  cause  a  sad 
break  in  his  scheme.  His  philosophy  is  not 
true,  if  sex  has  no  place.  And  if  sex  has  a 
legitimate  place,  then  it  is  clean  and  honorable. 
Then  again  I  believe  Walt's  treatment  of  sex 
is  healthy  and  sane.  It  is  true  his  sex  is,  as 
Symonds  points  out,  not  that  of  the  boudoir,  the 
alcove,  neither  is  it  the  sex  of  the  brothel.  It 
is  the  clean  healthy  relation  between  the  male 
and  female.  Walt  is  as  much  against  vice  as 
against  prudishness,  he  would  have  us  recognize 
that, 

"  If  anything  is  sacred,  the  human  body  is  sacred, 
And  the  glory  and  sweet  of  a  man  is  the  token  of  man 
hood  untainted; 

And  in  man  or  woman,  a  clean,  strong,  firm-fibered 
body  is  beautiful  as  the  most  beautiful  face." 

Walt's  scheme  then  made  treatment  of  sex 
necessary,  he  is  to  voice  a  protest  against  that 
dishonor  which  asceticism  has  placed  upon  the 
human  body.  And  his  demand  for  freedom  in 


THE  POET  PIONEER  61 

literature  makes  it  imperative  that  he  be  free  to 
speak  of  sex.  He  declares  it  his  purpose  when 
he  says, 

"  I  will  show  of  the  male  and  the  female  that  either  is 

but  the  equal  of  the  other; 
And  sexual  organs  and  acts,  I  am  determined  to  tell 

you    with    courageous    voice,    and    to    prove   you 

illustrious." 

I  do  not  see  how  we  can  criticise  "  Children 
of  Adam  ";  "  if  these  passages  cause  society  to 
blush,"  as  the  English  writer  says,  "  so  much  the 
worse  for  society."  We  need  to  get  away  from 
prudishness.  We  need  to  remember,  as  Heine 
once  remarked  to  the  protesting  matron,  "  Mad 
am  we  are  all  naked  under  our  clothes."  Walt 
never  felt  that  he  erred  in  his  treatment  of  sex, 
even  though  it  aroused  so  much  stir;  in  one  of 
his  Camden  talks,  he  says,  "  All  this  fear  of  in 
decency,  all  this  noise  about  purity  and  sex  is 
nasty  —  too  nasty  to  make  compromise  with." 

His  abhorrence  of  vice  was  strong,  he  tells 
us  — 

"  Have  you  seen  the  fool  who  corrupted  his  own  live 
body? 


62  WALT  WHITMAN 

Or  the  fool  who  corrupted  her  own  live  body? 
They  can  not  conceal  themselves. 

In  treating  sex,  Whitman  was  simply  true  — 
for  sex  and  its  passions  are  one  of  the  great 
facts  of  the  universe,  and  we  can  not  longer  pay 
any  attention  to  the  Anthony  Comstocks.  If 
these  over-sensitive  and  over-conservative  peo 
ple  had  their  way,  we  should  never  have  had  the 
Reformation,  the  Renaissance  or  the  French 
Revolution :  we  should  never  have  had  Voltaire, 
the  French  Encyclopaedia,  Shelley  or  Byron. 

But  there  is  another  item  to  be  called  up,  did 
Walt  sometimes  go  too  far?  Frankly  I  think 
he  did.  He  could  have  carried  out  his  philos 
ophy  and  at  the  same  time  payed  a  little  more 
respect  to  the  commonly  accepted  feelings  of 
society.  Granting  that  Walt  was  writing  for 
the  divine  average  and  not  the  so-called  refined, 
yet  it  must  be  confessed  he  is  sometimes  pretty 
bold.  His  images  are  as  Symonds  says  ''auda 
cious."  Take  this  one  for  instance  — 

"  The  hairy  wild  bee  that  murmurs  and  hankers  up 
and  down  — 


THE  POET  PIONEER  63 

That  grips  the  full-grown  lady  flower^  curves  upon  her 
with  amorous  legs,  takes  his  will  of  her,  and 
holds  her  to  himself  tremulous  and  tight  till 
satisfied." 

or  again, 

"  I  turn  the  bride-groom  out  of  bed,  and  stay  with  the 

bride  myself; 
I  tighten  her  all  night  to  my  thighs  and  lips." 

Such  passages,  and  there  were  still  others  in  his 
first  edition,  that  were  later  removed,  these  make 
us  feel  that  Walt  did  not  have  quite  enough 
respect  for  the  taste  of  society.  And  in  view 
of  the  great  abuses  of  the  sexual  life  which 
humanity  has  made,  most  of  us  will  think  it  were 
a  little  better  not  to  have  been  so  bold. 

But  summing  all  up,  Walt  Whitman  was  a 
poet,  and  none  the  less  a  poet  because  a  pioneer. 
His  work  is  poetry,  though  it  throws  off  the 
rhyme  and  meter:  and  it  is  clean  poetry,  though 
it  uses  sex  images. 

He  may  have  overdone  both,  as  it  is  plain 
he  did.  He  is  ofttimes  too  audacious  with  his 
sex,  he  ofttimes  drifts  into  the  uncouth  and  cat- 


64  WALT  WHITMAN 

aloguing  (Emerson  told  him  this,  and  Emerson 
was  wise)  yet  his  chants  are  great  poems. 
"  Leaves  of  Grass  "  indeed  "  strike  up  the  song 
for  the  new  world."  His  work  is  a  great  pro 
duction,  and  to  appreciate  it,  one  needs,  as 
Burroughs  says,  to  come  to  see  that  it  is  more 
than  mere  literary  product,  that  it  is  the  ex 
pression  of  a  new  gospel. 

Walt's  work  had  a  value  quite  apart  from 
literary  quality,  but  we  will  not  minimize  that 
quality.  A  work  that  could  grip  so  fastidious 
a  person  as  Stevenson,  could  for  him,  as  he  says, 
"  Turn  the  world  upside  down,  blow  him  into 
space  a  thousand  cobwebs  of  illusion,"  must  have 
some  merit.  And  Walt  was  a  poet  because  he 
had  the  poet's  soul.  He  was  the  true  mystic 
with  eyes  to  see  farther  than  the  slow-going 
plodding  mortals.  As  a  lad  we  see  him  lying 
on  the  sand  and  looking  into  the  sea,  and  feeling 
its  awe  and  mysticism.  In  the  robust  man 
traveling  over  the  city  or  up  and  down  the 
states,  he  sees  more  than  cars  and  teams, 
houses  and  roads,  he  sees  the  spirit  in  every 
thing. 


THE  POET  PIONEER  65 

A  convalescent  we  find  him  roaming  the  lanes, 
and  sitting  beneath  the  willows  of  Timber 
Creek;  sitting  for  hours  and  days  caressed  by 
the  air  and  sunshine,  and  feeling  all  the  em 
bracing  love  of  the  Universe. 

The  old  man  driving  his  horse  into  the  sea- 
edge  and  sitting  an  hour  enraptured  of  the  sun 
set,  getting  the  cold  that  brings  his  death,  here 
we  have  the  mystic,  the  poet.  The  observer 
who  can  see  in 

"  Oxen  that  rattle  the  chain, 

or  halt  in  the  leafy  shade: 
What  do  you  express  in  your  eyes, 
It  seems  to  me  more  than  all  the  print  of  the  world." 

The  man  who  can  see  these  things  is  a  poet. 
He  has  the  soul  of  a  poet,  and  his  productions 
bear  the  stamp  of  true  poetry,  and  other  poets 
can  not  disown  him,  even  if  he  uses  different 
forms  from  theirs. 

"  Surely  whosoever  speaks  to  me  in  the  right  voice, 

him  or  her  I  will  follow, 
As   the   water   follows   the   moon,   silently   with    fluid 

steps  anywhere  round  the  globe." 


66  WALT  WHITMAN 

If  this  be  not  a  poet's  expression  of  the  re 
sponse  of  one  person  to  the  appeal  of  another 
personality,  then  I  am  at  loss  to  know  what  a 
poetic  expression  is.  As  Emerson  said,  "  Whit 
man  had  the  terrible  eyes  to  see  back  into  the 
soul  of  everything,"  and  I  am  sure  that  he  had 
also  the  poet's  genius  to  tell  the  world  what  he 
saw. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

HIS  PLACE  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS 

I  here  announce  myself  a  follower  of  Walt  Whitman. 
I  have  caught  his  vision  of  myself ; 
I  have  caught  his  vision  of  humanity ; 
I  have  caught  his  vision  of  the  Universe. 
I  see  life  as  he  saw  it,  sincere,  sane  and  hearty, 
To  be  lived  simply,  free  from  imaginary  lines, 
Above  conflicting  creeds,   warring  systems   and   petty 
standards. 

Walt  leads  me  to  the  heights,  I  look  down  on  all  sides, 
My  soul  becomes  strong,  strong  enough  for  the  Open 

Road, 

Henceforth  I  know  no  classes,  sinners  nor  saints, 
I  fellowship  with  all,  I  enjoy  it  all,  the  world  is  good, 
And  I  follow  down  the  long  brown  path  with  Walt 

Whitman  my  leader. 

R.  D.  S. 

IT  will  be  a  long  time  before  Walt  Whitman 
can  be  accepted  by  all.     He  shares  the  fate 
of  the  strong  personalities,  of  the  prophets,  of 

67 


68  WALT  WHITMAN 

creating  a  division.  To  have  the  good-will  of 
every  one,  we  need  to  say  nothing,  do  nothing, 
be  nothing.  But  as  with  Jesus,  strong  souls 
become  a  rising  to  some,  a  falling  to  some.  The 
sane  view  of  those  who  reject  Walt  is  best  ex 
pressed  by  John  Jay  Chapman  in  his  essay  on 
Emerson.  Chapman  shows  us  how  Walt  looks 
to  the  thoroughly  conventional  eye,  from  such 
a  standpoint  the  estimate  is  just.  Chapman 
says,  "  Walt  Whitman  is  a  type  of  those  who 
after  a  sincere  attempt  to  take  a  place  in  or 
ganized  society,  revolt  from  its  drudgery." 
Chapman  continues,  "  I  have  often  wondered 
how  life  appears  to  the  tramp,  the  wandering 
worker,  Walt  tells  me.  He  is  the  type  of  the 
man  who  has  tasted  the  joy  of  being  in  the  open, 
of  being  disreputable  and  unashamed,  he  has 
reached  an  experience  where  life  has  for  him 
no  terrors,  and  upon  him  society  has  no  hold." 
This  estimate  is  just  from  the  standpoint  of 
conventional  society. 

The  question  remains  to  be  decided  however, 
whether  society  is  right  or  whether  Walt  was 
right.  We  can  only  say  for  the  present,  that 


AMONG  THE  PROPHETS         69 

each  year  an  increasing  number  of  souls  come  to 
feel  like  Walt,  and  hence  come  to  regard  him  as 
a  prophet.  As  Clarence  Darrow  says  for  us, 
'  When  man  has  grown  simpler  and  saner  and 
truer,  when  the  fever  of  civilization  has  been 
subdued  and  the  pestilence  cured;  when  man 
shall  no  longer  deny  and  revile  the  universal 
mother  who  gave  him  birth,  then  Walt  Whit 
man's  day  will  come.  In  the  clear  light  of  that 
regenerated  time,  when  the  world  looks  back 
on  the  doubt  and  mist  and  confusion  of  to-day, 
Walt  Whitman  will  stand  forth,  the  greatest, 
truest,  noblest  prophet  of  the  age,  a  man  un 
tainted  by  artificial  life  and  unmoved  by  the 
false  standards  of  his  time."  Whitman  has 
sometimes  by  enthusiastic  followers  been  likened 
to  Plato,  but  this  is  far  from  the  point,  he  is 
rather  to  be  likened  to  Isaiah  and  the  other 
rugged  Old  Testament  Prophets.  Or  he  might 
be  likened  as  Bucke  says,  to  one  of  our  primitive 
Aryan  ancestors  who  suddenly  comes  back  to 
life. 

Walt  was  not  a  philosopher,  not  a  scholar, 
of  organized  knowledge,  of  systematic  learning 


yo  WALT  WHITMAN 

he  knew  little.  Says  Carpenter,  "  Of  that  vast 
structure  of  classified  information  that  we  call 
scholarship,  Whitman  had  no  conception,  he 
handled  books  clumsily  and  was  not  a  book 


man." 


This  is  a  true  estimate,  one  who  looks  into 
Walt's  writings,  his  Journals,  prose  writings, 
"  Camden  Talks,"  etc.,  expecting  to  find  any 
cut  and  dried  philosophy  will  be  sadly  disap 
pointed.  Walt  had  no  carefully  wrought  out 
philosophy,  he  was  a  seer,  a  poet,  a  prophet, 
pure  and  simple.  And  Walt  was  a  prophet  — 
First,  as  a  poet  —  He  was  the  logical  successor 
of  Burns,  Blake  and  Shelley  in  poetry,  and  his 
conception  of  life  belongs  with  such  men  as 
Rousseau,  Voltaire,  Paine,  Mazzini,  Emerson, 
Tolstoy,  Thoreau. 

The  new  self-consciousness,  social  enthusiasm 
and  perception  of  Nature,  with  the  new  interpre 
tation  of  religion,  which  were  the  great  ideas 
that  actuated  these  men,  Walt  felt  and 
pushed  along. 

Walt  was  a  prophet  of  a  new  school  of  poetry, 
of  literature.  He  stands  a  John  the  Baptist 


AMONG  THE  PROPHETS         71 

crying  for  a  literature  that  shall  be  wider,  social, 
democratic  in  scope.  He  tells  the  world  it  can 
not  longer  be  content  with  a  poetry,  however 
beautiful  its  technique,  unless  it  be  in  touch  with 
the  modern  intellectual  movements  and  the 
pulsing  heart  of  man. 

Of  course  Walt  had  to  feel  this  way  for  he 
was,  secondly  a  pioneer  democrat,  a  prophet  of 
the  new  democracy.  Thoreau  meeting  him 
goes  away  saying,  "  he  is  our  greatest  demo- 
crat."  And  Carpenter  sums  him  up  so  well 
when  he  says,  "  Whitman  was  the  genuine 
democrat;  with  titanic  optimism  he  believed 
that  the  hope  of  humanity  lay  in  these  unedu 
cated,  illiterate  hordes.  Here  dwelt  the  in 
exhaustible  energy,  here  he  saw  the  great  vital 
forces  of  humanity." 

And  thirdly,  Whitman  was  prophet  of  a  new 
kind  of  knowledge.  His  knowledge  came  to 
him  as  a  certain  illumination,  an  intuition,  rather 
than  from  reasoning  processes.  And  he  tells 
us  that  the  final  test  of  truth  shall  be  whether 
we  feel  it  so.  By  which  he  means  that  the  final 
appeal  is  not  to  the  intellect,  but  to  the  sense,  the 


72  WALT  WHITMAN 

emotions,  the  whole  of  us.  Matters  fun 
damental  are  not  to  be  settled  by  speculative 
argument  in  the  realm  of  pure  intellect,  but  we 
intuitively  detect  truth,  rather  than  reason  it 
out.  Reason  at  the  best  can  only  seek  to 
analyze  what  we  already  know,  and  ditto  science. 
So  the  great  interpreters  are  not  those  who 
register  facts  of  science,  but  those  who  touch  our 
sense.  Whitman  stood  for  the  validity  of  the 
intuition  part  of  us.  And  was  he  not  wise? 
The  "  cool,  clear  logic,"  of  a  Calvin  or  an  Ed 
wards  can  send  us  all  to  hell.  It  can  justify 
capital  punishment,  but  when  Tolstoy  hears  the 
dull  thud  of  the  victim's  head  as  it  drops  from 
the  guillotine  to  the  basket,  he  does  not  stop  for 
u  logic  "  or  "  reasoning,"  he  knows  this  thing 
is  wrong.  As  Penn  had  said  of  the  Indians, 
"  they  can  believe  in  God  and  immortality  with 
out  the  aid  of  metaphysics,"  so  Walt  would 
declare  of  us  to-day. 

But  Walt  was  supreme  as  a  prophet,  in  being 
the  prophet  of  a  man,  the  best  kind  of  a  man, 
the  new  man,  the  modern  man,  the  fruit  of  the 
age,  the  man  of  the  coming  society.  "  Com- 


AMONG  THE  PROPHETS         73 

rade,"  he  cries,  "  this  is  no  book,  who  touches 
this  touches  a  man.?  We  are  no  blind  hero 
worshipers,  we  know  that  Walt  had  his 
weaknesses.  He  had  a  certain  egotism, 
which  he  frankly  admitted,  glorified  in,  all  of 
which  will  ever  seem  a  little  coarse.  His  use  of 
Emerson's  letter,  his  writing  press  notices  about 
himself,  his  arising  at  the  close  of  Ingersoll's 
eulogy  to  receive  the  applause,  his  preparation 
of  his  own  tomb  to  become  a  sort  of  Mecca  for 
the  faithful,  all  of  this  has  the  element  of  the 
"  poseur." 

Again  there  was  a  certain  arrogance  and  nar 
rowness  in  his  make-up,  he  often  needlessly 
quarreled  with  good  friends  like  Doyle  and 
O'Connor,  he  did  not  always  seem  to  appreciate 
their  deeds  in  his  behalf,  he  had  a  lack  of  frank 
ness  in  many  matters.  He  did  not  grasp  the 
economic  features  of  democracy  though  so 
radical  a  champion  of  it,  nor  did  he  always 
appreciate  the  efforts  of  those  working  for  it  at 
great  sacrifice,  as  for  instance  when  he  praised 
the  German  Emperor.  His  poetry  is  ofttimes 
tiresome  and  needlessly  burdened.  But  after  all, 


74  WALT  WHITMAN 

what  man  is  there  of  whom  we  can  not  say  as 
many  things  in  criticism  of  him. 

John  Burroughs,  perhaps  the  sanest,  ablest 
student  of  Walt,  who  knew  Walt,  had  his  friend 
ship,  speaks  of  Walt  the  man,  in  this  manner; 
says  Burroughs,  "  In  his  home  Walt  was  gentle 
and  patient  and  conciliatory.  He  was  a  pre 
eminently  manly  man,  richly  endowed  with 
healthy  human  qualities,  and  built  in  a  large 
mold  every  way.  He  had  a  fresh,  strong,  sym 
pathetic  nature.  The  atmosphere  of  Walt 
Whitman  was  that  of  a  large,  tolerant,  tender, 
sympathetic,  restful  man."  Dr.  Johnson  of 
England,  stated  after  a  visit  to  Whitman,  "  He 
impresses  me  with  a  sense  of  strength,  intel 
lectual  power  and  winning  sweetness/'  Joel 
Chandler  Harris  said  of  Walt  when  he  died, 
"  He  was  a  man  broad  and  deep,  and  men  must 
have  broad  and  deep  sympathies  to  possess  the 
password  to  Walt  Whitman."  Bucke  says  of 
him,  "  No  man  ever  liked  so  many  things  and 
disliked  so  few  as  Whitman,  all  sights  and 
sounds  pleased  him.  He  never  argued  or  dis 
puted,  he  never  spoke  about  money.  He  never 


AMONG  THE  PROPHETS         75 

complained  or  grumbled  about  the  weather, 
pain,  illness  or  any  thing  else.  He  never  swore, 
and  apparently  was  never  angry  or  afraid.'5 

These  qualities  in  Walt  have  led  some  of  his 
enthusiastic  disciples  to  regard  him  as  a  great 
restorer  of  a  natural  religion,  and  they  have 
placed  him  by  the  side  of  the  Founder  of 
Christianity.  Prof.  James,  looking  at  him  from 
the  scientific  standpoint  says,  "  He  is  the  su 
preme  example  of  the  inability  to  feel  any  evil, 
and  in  many  respects  he  is  in  the  genuine  lineage 
of  the  prophets."  We  must  conclude  then,  that 
after  all  has  been  said,  all  criticisms  made,  that 
Walt  Whitman  was  a  large-souled,  great 
hearted  loving  man  of  exceptional  power,  and 
possessing  a  large  measure  of  what  we  speak  of 
as  genius.  He  loves  all,  he  feels  for  all;  he 
refuses  to  send  the  boys  away  from  his  sick 
room  on  the  noisy  Fourth  of  July  lest  their  sport 
be  spoiled,  he  puts  his  sheltering  arm  about  the 
weak,  the  unprotected,  the  outcasts. 

Walt  Whitman  has  left  us  I  believe,  the  ex 
ample  of  a  fine  spirit,  a  spirit  that  for  contain 
ing  the  graces  of  the  Great  Galilean  has  been 


76  WALT  WHITMAN 

equaled  by  only  three  other  historic  characters, 
St.  Francis,  Burns  and  Tolstoy. 

He  was  a  man,  a  man  to  follow,  and  the  out 
pourings  of  his  soul  as  found  in  "  Leaves  of 
Grass,"  will  furnish  to  those  who  come  to  them 
for  stimulus,  impulse  and  emotion,  a  larger 
view  of  life  and  a  more  robust  taste.  To  those 
who  come  to  Walt  Whitman's  poems  for  pretty 
technique  or  cut  and  dried  philosophy,  there  is 
bound  to  be  disappointment,  but  to  those  who 
come  to  them  for  suggestion  for  thought  and 
emotion,  for  a  touch  with  a  large  soul,  with  a 
prophet,  I  am  sure  satisfaction  awaits.. 


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